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Dell Begins Offering Laptops With Intel's 'Management Engine' Disabled (liliputing.com)
An anonymous reader quotes Liliputing.com
Linux computer vendor System76 announced this week that it will roll out a firmware update to disable Intel Management Engine on laptops sold in the past few years. Purism will also disable Intel Management Engine on computers it sells moving forward. Those two computer companies are pretty small players in the multi-billion dollar PC industry. But it turns out one of the world's largest PC companies is also offering customers the option of buying a computer with Intel Management Engine disabled.
At least three Dell computers can be configured with an "Intel vPro -- ME Inoperable, Custom Order" option, although you'll have to pay a little extra for those configurations... While Intel doesn't officially provide an option to disable its Management Engine, independent security researchers have discovered methods for doing that and we're starting to see PC makers make use of those methods.
The option appears to be available on most of Dell's Latitude laptops (from the 12- to 15-inch screens), including the 7480, 5480, and 5580 and the Latitude 14 5000 Series (as well as several "Rugged" and "Rugged Extreme" models).
Dell is charging anywhere from $20.92 to $40 to disable Intel's Management Engine.
At least three Dell computers can be configured with an "Intel vPro -- ME Inoperable, Custom Order" option, although you'll have to pay a little extra for those configurations... While Intel doesn't officially provide an option to disable its Management Engine, independent security researchers have discovered methods for doing that and we're starting to see PC makers make use of those methods.
The option appears to be available on most of Dell's Latitude laptops (from the 12- to 15-inch screens), including the 7480, 5480, and 5580 and the Latitude 14 5000 Series (as well as several "Rugged" and "Rugged Extreme" models).
Dell is charging anywhere from $20.92 to $40 to disable Intel's Management Engine.
Rather than having to follow yet a Slashdot link to another Slashdot link, which then has a link to the actual story - here is a direct one:
Researchers find a way to disable Intel's Management Engine.
#DeleteChrome
You forgot about Purism. I believe they were the first ones to offer laptops with Intel ME disabled, back in October.
https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/17/10/29/0324201/purism-now-offers-laptops-with-intels-management-engine-disabled